GAME DAY STORY LINES • For the fifth consecutive season, No. 16/14 Baylor will play a Lone Star Conference program for an exhibition contest when the Bears host the Midwestern State Mustangs at the Ferrell Center. • Baylor is 4-1 in exhibition play under eighth-year head coach Scott Drew. • Baylor is ranked in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today preseason Top 25 polls for the first time in program history. • Both Baylor (Division I) and Midwestern State (Division II) advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2010. • Midwestern State’s coaching staff features two Baylor basketball alums — head coach Grant McCasland and assistant coach Nelson Haggerty. • Baylor leads the all-time series 3-0, but the schools have not played during the regular season since Dec. 6, 2003. • Baylor is 73-34 in the last three seasons — 21-11 in 2007-08, 24-15 in 2008-09 and 28-8 in 2009-10. • Baylor was selected to finish fourth in the 2010-11 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll. • Junior F/C J’mison (BoBo) Morgan, who played the last two seasons at UCLA, was granted his transfer waiver request by the NCAA in August. The 6-foot-11 center is eligible to play the 2010-11 season. • With the graduation of 1,000-point scorer Aaron Bruce in Aug. 2010, eighth-year head coach Scott Drew has graduated all 15 seniors on his rosters during his tenure at Baylor. • Drew is tied with Kansas’ Bill Self as the second-longest tenured head coach in the Big 12 Conference. Drew, who enters his eighth season at BU in 2010-11, is second only to Texas’ Rick Barnes, who enters his 13th season in Austin. • Baylor’s 2010-11 roster features seven student-athletes that hail from the state of Texas. • ESPN’s College GameDay Driven by State Farm is coming to Central Texas for the Bears' March 5 contest vs. Texas. • Baylor will open the 2010-11 regular-season Nov. 12 at 8:30 p.m. CST against Grambling State.

PREVIEWING MIDWESTERN STATE• In Grant McCasland’s first year as head coach in 2009-10, Midwestern State posted a 31-3 record and advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for the first time in school history. • The Mustangs’ 31 wins established a school record, bettering the previous mark of 30 set by the 1973-74 NAIA national runner-up squad. • Midwestern State will start the 2010-11 season ranked No. 13 in the Division II Bulletin Preseason Top 25. • Midwestern State returns two starters and five letterwinners from last year’s squad led by Sporting News preseason honorable mention All-American Chris Hagan, who averaged 14.1 points and 4.0 assists last year. Eight transfers also bolster the Mustangs’ 2010-11 roster, including four Division I transfers — Clinton Houston (San Diego), Kevin Loyd (Grambling State), Michael Loyd (BYU) and David Terrell (Morehead State).

HOMECOMING FOR McCASLAND, HAGGERTY• Baylor alums and Midwestern State coaches Grant McCasland (head coach) and Nelson Haggerty (assistant coach) return to the Ferrell Center for Thursday night’s exhibition. McCasland, a walk-on guard for former head coach Harry Miller, earned three letters and 1999 Academic All-Big 12 honorable mention honors. • Haggerty, a four-year starter at guard, holds the Baylor single-game (19), single-season (284) and career (699) assists records. He averaged 7.13 assists in 98 career games and led the nation with a 10.14 assists-per-game average in 1994-95.

EXHIBITION HISTORY UNDER DREW• Baylor is 4-1 in exhibition play under eighth-year head coach Scott Drew. • Thursday’s contest marks the fifth consecutive season that Baylor has played an exhibition game against a Lone Star Conference school. • Last season, the Bears defeated Central Oklahoma, 86-71. Baylor lost to Tarleton State in its 2007-08 exhibition game after defeating Texas A&M-Commerce in its 2006-07 exhibition. • In Drew’s first season, BU defeated a pair of traveling exhibition teams (Raiders Select, World HoopStars).

BEARS DEBUT IN BOTH AP, COACHES PRESEASON POLLS• For the first time in program history, Baylor enters the season ranked in the preseason top 25 polls. Baylor is ranked No. 14 in the preseason ESPN/USA Today Top 25 poll — its second-highest coaches’ poll ranking. • Baylor also cracked the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, debuting at No. 16, its highest AP poll ranking.

‘PJ3’ TO MAKE LONG-AWAITED BAYLOR DEBUT• Freshman F/C Perry Jones III enters the 2010-11 season as the highest-rated recruit in Baylor history and the fourth consensus top-50 recruit under head coach Scott Drew. A five-star recruit by Rivals.com and Scout.com, Jones III is the second signee in program history (Tweety Carter) named to Parade, McDonald’s and Jordan Brand All-America teams. • Jones III is only the second Baylor player (Carter) to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game. He was rated in the top 10 by Sporting News (No. 2), Scout.com (No. 2), Rivals.com (No. 6), MaxPreps.com (No. 7) and ESPNU (No. 9).

PROGRAM REBUILDING COMPLETE• Baylor is in the midst of one of the program’s most successful runs, posting three straight 20-win seasons and three straight postseason appearances. Baylor is 73-34 in the last three seasons — 21-11 in 2007-08, 24-15 in 2008-09 and 28-8 in 2009-10. • Prior to the Bears’ current streak, Baylor won only 36 games in Scott Drew’s first four seasons and a total of 83 games in the first seven full seasons in the 2000s. • Baylor won a school-record 28 games in 2009-10 and advanced to the program’s first Elite Eight in the modern tournament era. The Bears’ three tournament wins in 2010 matched their win total from the previous five NCAA tournament appearances. • In the last three seasons under Drew, Baylor is 7-3 in the postseason (3-2 in NCAA, 4-1 in NIT). Prior to Drew’s arrival, Baylor was 3-9 in the program’s first 101 seasons.

UP NEXT• Baylor opens the 2010-11 regular-season Nov. 12 when it hosts Grambling State at the Ferrell Center. The game will tip at 8:30 p.m. CST. • Baylor leads the all-time series 2-0. The season-opener will mark the first series meeting between the schools since Nov. 29, 2006.